“Tell me to stay and I will be here for as long as you’ll have me.”
Zev/warden?
“What happened with Taliesen… Are you okay?”
Nelka already knew the answer to that. How could Zevran possibly be okay? They’d just killed someone he cared about and made sure that he could never return to the Crows.
However, she didn’t know how else to check in on him but to ask that vague question and hold his arm a little bit tighter in their tent. Neither of them could sleep, and the silence was suffocating.
“No,” Zevran admitted. “But also in a way… yes? I feel as though a weight has lifted off me. It will never be entirely gone, of course; I can’t just ignore the things I’ve done. I do wish that things might have ended differently between myself and Taliesen, but I don’t know if such an ending would be possible for us.”
“I know what it’s like for someone you cared about to turn on you,” Nelka said, thinking about Leske and how he sided against her in Dust Town, even after everything they’d been through. “It’s hard to say goodbye.”
“It’s easier when there’s a new start waiting for you, though.”
Nelka smiled and rolled into him. “That’s true.” She paused. “I don’t know what happens after all this, but… I don’t want us to say goodbye. Any kind of goodbye, you know, whether it’s one with knives or just one with words.”
With utmost seriousness, he said, “Tell me to stay and I will be here as long as you’ll have me.”
“Stay,” Nelka breathed. “Stay with me.”
He leaned forward to kiss her, cupping her cheek and pulling her into him.
“Mi amor,” he whispered against her skin. “You made me a better man. And to think that I might have a future…? It is a fantasy I never even dared to dream of.”
“We were a couple of criminal misfits,” Nelka laughed. “And now look at us?”
“Still misfits, certainly,” Zevran teased. “But at least we’re not alone now.”
They kissed again, then pressed their foreheads together and breathed the other in.
“To think, I once wanted to die by your hand. Now, I hope to die by your side.”
“Hopefully not for a long time, right?” Nelka asked.
“Not for a long, long time,” he said, kissing her forehead. “I never used to dream of a life beyond the Crows, beyond combat and assassination. Now… I dream of so many futures with you. Forgive me,” he added, “I know I’m not one for such emotional chatter. The events of the day must have gotten to me.”
“Zevran… you’re fine. More than fine. I…” She’d never said those words to anyone but her sister. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Nelka wondered if those words had been lingering on Zevran’s tongue as readily as they had been on hers, waiting for so long, hidden behind broken hearts and jaded minds. But wrapped up together, the pain of their pasts was forgotten, abandoned in the arms of their lover and the promise of a future that was so much brighter than any joy they’d felt before.
